Morning, July 1. We're not entirely rested, but a very good night's sleep anyway. Up at 8:00 and down for a lovely breakfast buffet where we played "guess the fruit." (I got the right answer on the passion fruit.)
Off to Federal Air, for the charter to Ngala. A small single engine for 10 passengers and a crew of 2. Karylinn Amanda and I got the first row right behind the pilots. Darvy, our captain looked like a late "twenty something". The co-pilot's name I can't remember, but I only saw the back of her head.
Leaving Jo-berg, most all of the landscape was farms with ponds and some large houses. But not all of it. At one point, I asked amanda to take a picture of one of the shanty towns out the other side of the plane. Darvy noticed and said, "why would you want a picture of that discusting area, you'll see much better things later on." Not having a thoughtful answer, I said nothing. Unusual for me, I know. He was right, though. Much better things were ahead.
Getting away from the smallish farms, we got to an area of open space, with trees only in the bottom of watercourses. Some of the farms appeared to be tree farms, some areas that were unmistakably pivot irrigated fields. About 2/3 way along we came to a farm with the buildings up high on a granite outcrop, brown dry fields all around, and then a granite edge, and an astonishing drop off covered with brush. At the bottom a sizeable town. Most of the streets appear to be red dirt, and the main drags paved. (For the google earth folks: S 24d 37.2' E 31d 12')
From the air out here, the land looks like eastern oregon; brown and dry with scrub brush in between. On reflection though, I think that the "scrub" is actually acacia trees, and probably elephant high!
At long last, our pilots turned throught a great deal of turbulance (is that a stall alarm that beeps periodically?) and pointed at a dirt strip. On arrival, our pilot announced our arrival at Skukuza. (Huh?!?) "We'll just be dropping off seven passengers, and then the rest of the way to Ngala" Oh, Ok, we didn't get on the wrong plane, that really was just a bit of my unnececssary paranoia. [Picture to follow when the internet connection is better]
The strip at Ngala was much less exciting. It is actually paved. When we landed our pilots didn't shut down then engines and warned us about the exhaust while getting out. "We've been having a bit of trouble with the starter . . ." (Ok, and yet you shut it down on that other strip??.) For heavens sake.
Once down, our luggage was collected and we hopped into the large landrover truck driven by Lyson, one of the rangers. He got the truck started toward the lodge, then while tooling along the rutted dirt road, turned to face us, spread both arms in a welcoming fashion and said "Welcome to Ngala!" Obviously he knew the road, because he turned around when he needed to steer.
We signed in, had a bit of lunch on the portico, and then gathered our things for the first game drive. More on that to come.
Off to Federal Air, for the charter to Ngala. A small single engine for 10 passengers and a crew of 2. Karylinn Amanda and I got the first row right behind the pilots. Darvy, our captain looked like a late "twenty something". The co-pilot's name I can't remember, but I only saw the back of her head.
Leaving Jo-berg, most all of the landscape was farms with ponds and some large houses. But not all of it. At one point, I asked amanda to take a picture of one of the shanty towns out the other side of the plane. Darvy noticed and said, "why would you want a picture of that discusting area, you'll see much better things later on." Not having a thoughtful answer, I said nothing. Unusual for me, I know. He was right, though. Much better things were ahead.
Getting away from the smallish farms, we got to an area of open space, with trees only in the bottom of watercourses. Some of the farms appeared to be tree farms, some areas that were unmistakably pivot irrigated fields. About 2/3 way along we came to a farm with the buildings up high on a granite outcrop, brown dry fields all around, and then a granite edge, and an astonishing drop off covered with brush. At the bottom a sizeable town. Most of the streets appear to be red dirt, and the main drags paved. (For the google earth folks: S 24d 37.2' E 31d 12')
From the air out here, the land looks like eastern oregon; brown and dry with scrub brush in between. On reflection though, I think that the "scrub" is actually acacia trees, and probably elephant high!
At long last, our pilots turned throught a great deal of turbulance (is that a stall alarm that beeps periodically?) and pointed at a dirt strip. On arrival, our pilot announced our arrival at Skukuza. (Huh?!?) "We'll just be dropping off seven passengers, and then the rest of the way to Ngala" Oh, Ok, we didn't get on the wrong plane, that really was just a bit of my unnececssary paranoia. [Picture to follow when the internet connection is better]The strip at Ngala was much less exciting. It is actually paved. When we landed our pilots didn't shut down then engines and warned us about the exhaust while getting out. "We've been having a bit of trouble with the starter . . ." (Ok, and yet you shut it down on that other strip??.) For heavens sake.
Once down, our luggage was collected and we hopped into the large landrover truck driven by Lyson, one of the rangers. He got the truck started toward the lodge, then while tooling along the rutted dirt road, turned to face us, spread both arms in a welcoming fashion and said "Welcome to Ngala!" Obviously he knew the road, because he turned around when he needed to steer.
We signed in, had a bit of lunch on the portico, and then gathered our things for the first game drive. More on that to come.
2 comments:
Lovely descriptions but when do we see the elephants? photos, photos!
I am commenting only to make sure you know that all your hard work is getting noticed (and read...well mostly). Cool pics
Downing (back in boring Portland)
Post a Comment